The end of RedCode? Intel Optane SSDs

[Dunkan Wolf]

http://www.zdnet.com/article/intels-radical-optane-next-gen-ssd/

Optane promises to be 1,000 times faster with 1,000 times the endurance of NAND while being 10 times denser than conventional memory.

Because memory is written at the cell level rather than in block arrays, data can be accessed more quickly and efficiently with Optane's 3D XPoint technology.


On stage, Krzanich showed that an early prototype of an Optane SSD can access data up to seven times faster than Intel's leading NAND-based solid state drive. Krzanich says that this is the world's first live demonstration of 3D XPoint in action.

Set to be released in 2016

Curious how this will affect the camera industry. In a few years we'll have P&S cameras shooting 4K 16bit RAW in 120FPS.

 

[Mike P.]

Depends on cost. If it's 1 petabyte for $100 that's also 1000x faster than current SSDs, shooting compressed raw would seem like a waste of image quality (regardless of how minimal the difference is). That said, it'll likely be $1000 for 1tb, which kinda blows as you'd chew through that in like 12mins...

 

[Marc Wielage]

It still takes a certain amount of time to process and copy X Terabytes of material over to editors' drives, as well as shipping material to VFX houses, sound people, and colorists. I have seen projects engulfed by too much data before, much of it wasted due to overindulgent directors who don't know when to say "cut." There are some infamous feature films out there that have shot 500-600 hours+ of material, which I think is ridiculously high.

Couple that with the prospect of shooting at 60fps or 120fps, along with multiple cameras, it becomes insanely complicated, expensive, and time-consuming to deal with in post. I think there are realistic limits to dealing with shooting ratios, frame rates, file sizes, and all the other problems in post.

I also continue to believe that upping the frame rate doesn't necessarily improve the theatrical experience, nor does it compensate for bad characters, bad stories, and bad filmmaking. 120fps 3D HDR would not have made Fantastic Four even $1 more at the box office. I think too many people are seduced by technical ideas and don't pay enough attention to the important artistic considerations. I'd much rather have a well-lit 4K image at 24fps than a grainy, noisy, badly-lit 8K image in 120fps. Worry about the basics first.

BTW, that article says that a 256GB Optane SSD is going to be $1000, which ain't my idea of a bargain. Also bear in mind there's a lot of dead corpses for old drives out there; I routinely see large Firewire and USB2 RAID drives on eBay that sellers can't even give away. This technology has a bad habit of changing very quickly, which obsoletes the systems that editors, DITs, colorists, and sound people have invested in.